Pams - Series 18

There are many great jingle sites (like www.jinglemad.com), and this Boom cannot do justice to the subject. But maybe, in any tribute to radio, jingles must play some part. And – if they do - it’s only right, we should mark the work of PAMS, seen as the first ‘jingle company’, although some stations were making their own idents in various ways before PAMS.

Bill Meeks was PAMS: a company which started life as an ad agency, both placing and producing spots, then moving into making jingles for the stations themselves. In time, that latter work was to define the Company. PAMS cuts nowadays are not only familiar collectors items, but still being re-sung. PAMS work has been heard on countless stations over the years, including on the early days of BBC Radio 1. Bill died in 1999.

Enjoy here the famous Series 18, Sonosational, featuring the first use of Sonovox. If you recall the Radio London pirate station, you’ll recall a few of these cuts, albeit with a very different melody from this ‘WGH in Old Virginia’ set. (More on Sonovox in my blog here)